Pride & Prowess
by Mythologyfangirl
Summary: It is a truth universally acknowledged that an alpha in possession of a pack must be in seek of a luna. When Lizzie crosses paths with the handsomely insolent Alpha Darcy and she finds out she is his mate. Lizzie can climb society this way but she battles against his pride and Werewolf ways in her prejudice. Until secrets emerge. A world of balls, Werewolfs and hunters.
1. Alpha Darcy

_Pride & Prowess._

"It is a truth universally acknowledged that an alpha in possession of a pack must be in seek of a luna. Beware, stay away from the forest, unsuitable characters bury themselves in shadows and prejudice filled creatures reign with great pride and prowess, especially one."

Well, that's a bunch of crap.

The moonlight bleeds into my veins and I choke on the silver magnificence as it drowns me in its beams. I've always thought that the stars are the best form of company, loyal, unfaltering and constant in their dedication. This damn book provides me with nothing to draw me away from my ponderings. Why do guys never possess the qualities that the stars have? Loyalty. Modesty and so on? The wind answers at least with a chilly embrace around my shoulders and I hug my coat tighter, looking out across the sea of tangerine lights from the city cast in shadows.

I wish Jane and the other girls had wanted to come up and join me. Alas, they're probably too busy preparing for the the Bingley's at High School tomorrow. I want to roll my eyes but I don't.

The tears are stinging, just like the truth. I've never tasted love or lust buried beneath the weight of textbooks and maybe I'll never taste the sweet poison. My trembling fingers wipe away the falling tears and I let out a shaking breath, maybe I'm alive but not living. The thought keeps my brain occupied as I long to distract myself from my mundane reality.

Give me something interesting in life... I muse quietly. The rustling of leaves behind me retorts. A smile spreads over my lips, as if I'll fall for that.

The night carries a bark on its breathe, a growl in its grip and it's pretty fair to say that I'm just imagining the spine chilling howl that just came from somewhere behind me in the forest trees.

My hairs are standing on end, terror is beginning to rush through my veins as the possibility of the padding paws being real is pretty evident. Stop! My mind screams but it doesn't.

I can hear it. The way the paws scratch at the mud and the song of snarls surrounding me. I don't know why I know, I just do. Wolves are watching my back and they're waiting for something, or maybe someone.

Slowly, my head turns to my right. I can see them all out of the corner of my eye. Wolves, ready, waiting and wild.

So maybe Jane Austen wasn't making up crap?

I can see their breaths dancing in the air like puffs of swirling smoke. I should run, my instincts are begging for my legs to break into a sprint but my feet refuse, fully planted on the ground of the forest floor.

There's a war inside of me, my head is telling me to flee like a survivor but my body is commanding me to stay put to save myself the trouble of being tackled by the gargantuan mutts.

My blood is sounding in my ears, adrenaline taking hold of my every atom. It's not hard to figure out. I'm going to die, the fact now seems startlingly inevitable. The growling and drooling tells me as much as they glare with eyes of amber, blue and hazel.

But why are they waiting? Do they need more wolves to tear me apart? The thought is almost laughable considering there's around 50, and they're only the ones that I can see. Maybe it will be over quickly?

I swallow hard in an effort to contain my composure, but most of all my head. One wrong move and I'll be clawed to death in an undignified manner instantly. Now that's a truth I acknowledge so I remain standing, pretending to gaze out across the picturesque view of Aventown. I try to search for my home but the night hides it from my view most cruelly.

"And you are?"

The voice reeks of rigid formality, insolent boredom and obvious disinterest, even before I turn to lay my eyes upon the beast. Except, his face possess no taint of unattractiveness but a fine blend of beauty worthy of divine craftsmanship. His pale skin is touched by moonlight, the silver glow highlighting his naked chest sculpted like marble. I'm not quite sure whether to look away or to allow my eyes the shameful pleasure.

I think the blush in my cheeks betrays my internal conflict because his egotistical smirk is my retort as he has the audacity to continue watching me. He rakes his hands through his tousled hair that is colored like midnight. My eyes fall to the ground as quickly as possible but I don't miss the unmistakable fact that he is the only human in my presence, unaffected by the bowing of the wolves around him.

"I asked you a question and yet you don't give me a reply. So are you deaf or rude? Either way, quite frankly I find you tolerable I guess, but not very beautiful. I fail to see why my pack thought you worthy of my presence, I hear you're elder sister is the pretty one."

How does he know about Jane?!

Fury surges through my veins at the insult that slips from this stranger's tongue like casual conversation. A sudden wildness takes a hold of my hand and leads it to connect with his cheek before I have the ability to calm myself down. I hear the sting of skin and skin and a smile dances onto my lips at the satisfying sound.

"You're the one that needs the lessons in manners, Mr-"

"Alpha Darcy of the Pack of Pemberly."

I try to avoid the way his eyes are glistening so I pick at my nails to distract myself from his cursed handsomeness and intense gaze that horrifies me.

"Elizabeth Bennet, you jerk of Longbourn House."

Why did I tell him where I live? I silently curse myself at giving a total handsome stranger my address! He doesn't seem to care one bit though, his temperament is tainted by self importance that the look in his eyes is not compassion as such but merely pride. He's covered in it from head to toe with his perfect posture and authority.

I raise my eyebrow questioningly and he blinks in reply unaffected by my sarcasticness, so much so that I find him leaning down and brushing a light kiss on the back of hand. His lips are warm unlike his manner and sends an odd fluttering about in the pit of my stomach. A sudden surge of electricity makes it' way from his lips to mine, a desire. A strange longing for him to remain close and connected so that he does not severe this- this bond.

The gasp that passes my lips is audible and his eyes flicker up and the rest of his body in response. He's still looking, wide eyed, hungry, dark and dangerous. There's silence around us and he edges closer just a little. With every step the fire around us gains intensity and I'm ravenous for him but repulsed at the exact same time.

His fingers find my cheek then follows my jawline slowly. I can see that he's enjoying this but also loathing this, whatever _this_ is.

"It's seems you're my mate." He whispers tauntingly. My core tingles in reply and agreement as if a single word can somehow possess the ability to satisfy this most unwelcome and irritating flush of desire.

He mocking me with our achingly close proximity. I open my mouth to tell him what an asshole he is but his index finger rapidly finds its way to my lips.

"Shhh. I'm not finished."

My rage only intensifies at his undignified response and under his scrutinizing gaze that seems to trace my every flaw, freckle and curve. He must find a million imperfections from my brunette waves and plainess to my slender but curvy frame.

"You lack the strength, grace and politeness to be my luna. You will learn to bark to my command, you will master the art of holding my attention because you certainly aren't jaw dropping like the others. You, Miss Bennet are to damn shy to let your inner wolf out but your wildness slips through the facade of innocence. I already know you- insolent, on the edge of tolerable and barely tempting."

He leaves my pride wounded whilst his is untouched but he doesn't miss the fire in my eyes or the deep warning that flickers over my expression. He's unaffected and arrogant- but more than that he is pride and prowess entwined.

Damn Alpha Darcy!


	2. The Ball, Bites and Wolfsbane

_Pride & Prowess_

His eyes found mine across the prison he'd entrapped me in. Was I merely to be his pawn of prejudice? So that my role were merely to torment him with my words that criticized his every irritating glance, undignified temperament and superior vocabulary? His every look ignited the most furious fire within me, despite our distance.

Thankfully, he made it so that we were separated by his pack of Pemberley, as he so frequently reminded me. They danced in gowns of glitter and howled at the end of every instrumental song, their barks threatened to make my ears bleed, so much so that my index fingers found my ears in order to save them from unnecessary damage.

Darcy smirked from across the hall of dancing human form werewolves and the chamber of engraved full moons and silver. I glared back with a ferocity he would have struggled to match and I grinned from the satisfactory way that his palm thought it wise to crack the glass within his hand. He never flinched, for he was too superior in his very nature to be affected or so I presumed.

"Care to dance, Miss Bennet?" The gentle voice caught me off guard and I found myself gazing at a stranger, whose palm was extended, waiting. Swiftly, I took another daring glance at Alpha Darcy and watched the way he grimaced.

"I'd be delighted!" I smiled and allowed myself, willingly this time to be carried off. I didn't exactly follow their gentle steps but rather allowed my feet to create my own as we waltzed around the room of roaming werewolves. I spun a thousand times and saw Darcy's face far too many and caught the small smile on his lips just once.

He's probably mocking me, I thought coldly and span once more with a giggle. I drank in the countless faces of the Pemberley Pack but one seemed oddly familiar, too familiar. I froze in place a moment as the music and howls washed over me once more, but I never focused on that, only on the beaming smile that spoke all too much of memories, golden hair that I'd brushed through so many times and a face that tugged at my very heartstrings for it were she who played them more than the rest.

Her name fell from my lips in a soft whisper. "Jane." She never heard me, never even glanced my way for I witnessed the way her eyes remained locked with his, the way she danced as if she were not surrounded by terrifying werewolves that could murder us any moment, she only stared at him.

What was he doing to her? My heart pounded rapidly and fear flooded through my veins suddenly.

"Miss Bennet? Miss Bennet are you quite alright? If you wish to dance with Alpha Darcy then I am not offended. After all, he is your mate."

The strangers words meant nothing to me as I watched Jane with all the concentration I could possibly ever muster. He's enchanting her my mind hissed in horror and I shook my head at the stranger's audicity. How dare he manipulate Jane's shyness for weakness! My temper raged on and the words fell from my lips easily.

"I need my handbag, sir. May you please get it for me?" The behest and question fell out in a tone of innocence and within a moment, the handbag was extended to me with his tongue hanging out excitedly. Shame I didn't bring any dog biscuits! They were all monsters!

My hand dived past the book in my bag, down to the feel of the plant I'd managed to grab before being dragged by Darcy himself, and luggage on his shoulder as if I were some nuisance. A small smile spread over my lips as I felt it, Jane and mine's ticket to liberty.

I concealed it rapidly in my hands, remembering Jane Austen's warning on Wolfsbane and strategically made my way through the hall, forcing laughs and wearing a mask of enjoyment and delight, which couldn't have been further from the very definition of truth. Still it was for Jane.

My sweet, shy Jane who was being manipulated by the golden haired lover werewolf boy with his k9's showing in his obviously false grins as he swirled her. Rage boiled within me with every passing step as I forced myself to approach the mutt.

"Unhand my sister, you creepy little K9!" I screamed ferociously, extending my wolfsbane right up to his fairly handsome face, if I considered it. Which I did but merely momentarily when Jane's cry distracted me.

"LIZZIE! What are you doing here?!"

"Jane! What do you mean what am I doing here? What are you doing here? Thank the heavens you're okay! This freaky werewolf right here was trying to brainwash you or something. You should have seen the look on your face. It was like you were in love or something! Come on, we must leave!" I grabbed Jane's hand rapidly, ignoring her furious blushing and quiet remarks of protest as we ran from the chamber.

I didn't even dare to glance back at Alpha Darcy with his insolent mannerisms and odd company. Nor did I take it upon myself in the heat of the moment to examine if Jane's K9 was alright, not that I was especially fussed.

Our dresses trailed on the ground in this labyrinth of a manor and I felt Jane's warm hand leave my own suddenly. I paused in perplexion and glanced in discombobulation at the distance between our palms.

"What's wrong? We haven't got time for this Jane! If they're sweaty then tough! We're running from werewolfs, insolent werewolves who are so stuck up their own asses they can barely get back Jane! Bow hurry we need to tell father about all this! It'll do nothing for mother's nerves!"

Jane's eyes were full of tears suddenly and she must have seen the deep frown lines that cut over my brow because she went to straighten my forehead with a sweet smile.

"Do you not understand the definition of urgency, Jane?"

It was her turn to frown in confusion now as she opened her mouth to speak before I felt myself being shoved to the ground in the most undignified manner that all the air was knocked out from my lungs and I gasped for breath under a great weight.

"Wolfsbane, Miss Bennet? How original of you!" Darcy whispered smoothly and I sighed in irritation before Jane was tackled to the ground opposite me with more grace and more laughing as the crazy K9 pressed his lips to hers and Jane said the most horrifying words I'd ever heard in my entire life.

"Bite me, Mr Bingley!"

Mr. Bingley froze, his eyes flickering from Jane to Darcy above me himself and I saw his saw nod in approval at my sister's request. I watched the way his teeth sank into my sister's palm as she giggled in ecstasy.

"I love you, Mr. Bingley, I'm infatuated with you!" Jane sang softly and I wept harder for her sanity.

"JANE! JANE! JANE!" I cried until everything went dark...


	3. Carnage Courtship

_Pride and Prowess:_

Bite me, Mr Bingley.

Jane's lexical selection and its ensuing imagery of werewolf k9's plagued my state of eroding slumber. I kept my eyelids sealed against the tangerine glow of the sunlight beyond the shild of my own sanctary and felt the sun's warm glow upon my own skin, dying me in its warm rays. Except, the sun was not the only object to leave a warm gentle glow upon my person. A sweet touch on my palm, a hand upon my own, still and soft and...

My eyes fluttered open rapidly to find those smoldering dark orbs that are still remained so harshly persistant in regarding myself with such fierce pride, as if forcing it upon himself, Alpha Darcy to hold my gaze. My hand removed itself from his as quickly as his own boots found a standing disposition and the ice returned to mould his fine features. _Damn you Alpha Darcy._ My mind cursed against the waves of goosebumps that blossomed over my skin beneath my own cream ballgown at the very sight of such a figure towering over me, with his tousled hair dyed by midnight and his own complexion being kissed by the moon. He left my insides howling for the taste of those lips that I watched intently, waiting.

"Ah Miss Bennet, you're awake. I'm presuming you'd like to see your sister? She is just in the other room and has taken ill. I thought it best if we made the journey to Netherfield after the ball." His words quivered ever so slightly as he drank in the sight of my dishevelled brunette waves tumbling down and the frown that I purposefully invited to reign over my own features. In such a moment of internal weakness, I allowed myself to ponder what he saw when he stared at me in that brief passing of time. The nervous biting down upon the bottom of his lip confirmed such a burning question.

Prejudice.

My next words only entertained and danced with such a notion, along my hands trailing to settle upon my hips. "After the _biting_ , you mean? You are the most despicible creature I have ever had the displeasure in laying eyes upon! Y-You allowed Mr. Bingley to steal my sister's heart and poison her and turn her and make her into a werewolf! One of you detestable things." My heart hammered against my ribcage as such language flowed past my lips and I forced myself to take in the sight of his chest rising and falling rapidly, as if struggling for air against the attack of such heavy diction, a stab of regret slashing into my gut. I swallowed hard against the rising threat of flushing cheeks, dyed rose by guilt and shame.

 _No! Control yourself!_ I internally bark at myself.

"Miss Jane is Bingley's luna! And for it she shall, upon their imminent marriage recieve an income of £5000 pounds and membership of our pack! I'm sure that will settle your mother' nerves after all! That's all your mother cares for, isn't it? Her daughters rise in the world of werewolves! Isn't that why Mr. Collins is at your home right now?"

Alpha Darcy's choice of language might as well have been k9's settling themselves into my flesh and sinking themselves into my heart because he left my organ with a deep stabbing sensation that caused a detestable salty stinging in my eyes.

I wanted to choke against the effects, the slipping tears that fell down my cheeks foolishly and the way my own chest rose and fell like his. Our breaths seemed to match in pace as he took a slow dangerous step towards me in the defeaning silence. In the most undignified manner, his breath tickled against my very cheek, the cheek that his hand raised to touch- The action that my own fingers did not permit, swating him away like a fly.

"Miss Bennet- I, you-." Alpha Darcy, the leader of the Pack of Pemberley whispered as softly as a kiss but a mislanded one against my own gentle shoving past him towards the threshold of the door that promised a satisfactory departure from the horrible warmth of his breath against my skin and the pleasant sound of his voice. He left my feet hungry for an exit that I found forcefully.

"I can only hope that Mr. Collins is a better than yourself! And as soon to be Alpha of my own home! What a match! You dare insult my family's honor again Alpha Darcy and I shall be even less tolerable state than you find me in currently. Good day."

"I wish you weren't my mate! I detest you! Go and marry Mr. Collins! He'll kill you in five seconds, Miss Bennet! He is no friend of our kind or your family. He has secrets! Your own family of Loungbourn are just as dysfunctional, Miss. Bennet."

I growled and launched my own foot into mid air in the most unladylike but at the same time most appropriate action that my mind could muster in its racing ponderings of spinning words and dizzying proposals. My foot hit its target- At the part a lady is not supposed to name but any other word than that of the groin. Alpha Darcy snarled against the pains I inflicted most innocently and with that, with his delicious handsome figure finding the carpeted ground, I felt the wind rush through my own hair as I turned away from those pride filled, drownable, haunting eyes. They left a weight upon my back.

"Until we meet again, Alpha Darcy. My dysfunctional family sends their warmest regards to your Pack of Pemberley."

And maybe I will marry William Collins, I mused fiercely. Such a thought occupied and tamed the wild heat surging through my veins, as if it were a glass of cold herbal tea to ease a soaring fever. Sweat covered my brow most ungracefully but I cared little when a fire burned within me at the sound that shot through my own ears.

Her steady growling.

I passed the shadow of a creeping and giggling Caroline Bingley who snarled with her teeth bared at my passing in the coridoor as my eyes settled upon the lips of Jane and Bingley disgustingly meeting with her howls of giggling against the walls of her new home.

A blush in her cheeks and a clear delusion existing in her mental state for allowing his lips to settle upon her neck. Jane never directed her pretty face towards me, wrapped in his arms. _Quite ill indeed._

My fingers felt heavy at the very sight, seeking to claw at my elder sister's garments and pull her away from such a detestable male. The most sought after male in all of our high school, no less. And a werewolf- A ticket to high society.

A shallow ebbing ache hit my stomach at her smile, at her perfect skin, at her sweetness. She had no bite or bark or bitchness. Jane Bennet- Werewolf and all was still lined in an aroma of shyness.

I huffed furiously at my sister, passing her promptly with my shoes hitting the ground of the wooden floorboards, along with another pair that followed closely, as if a wolf stalking her prey. Such a similie seemed too fitting as she crept along the coridoors of her own rented home of ornateness, hunting me.

I inhaled through my nostrils and caught the scent of her sweet perfume. Caroline's gown was as silver as her wolf form's shaggy coat. A flash of rememberance crossed across my brain as her hand settled upon my clothed shoulder, where her teeth had once been, dragging me through the forest and mud.

"Take her!" Darcy had not but long ago behested. _I will make him regret such a commandment,_ my mind drooled. Miss Bingley had obeyed growling at me and drooling at him. My throat seemed to lack moisture in those moments as her sweet tenor dragged me back to the clutches of my depraved reality.

I wanted my textbooks over these tears that still threatened to fall. I wanted school over snarling and no werewolves. No social climbing or werewolf filled forests. _Curse you, Jane Austen. She was correct._

My feet were still finding their way across Netherfield, passing portraits of the Bingley's packs paintings upon the long wall.

 _I wonder where Jane will be?_

"You are the most disgustingly wild animal! Daring to lay a hand upon Alpha Darcy, as if you're entitled! You cannot dance, sing, howl, transform, snarl! You are not worthy of being Alpha Darcy's luna, Miss Bennet, not worthy of true Werewolf society. I bid you to never return. But shall endure the presence of your more agreeable sister. Jane shall go further than you ever will."

I could feel her hands shove me out of the opulent entrance of the Werewolf manor as if a wolf casting aside a pathetic form of prey that was not worthy of being consummed. She sniffed me as if I were poison.

"If you return to Darcy, Miss Bennet, I shall see to it that you are destroyed."

Finally, I allowed the gates of Netherfield to smash close behind me with a sickening scream, cutting off my closeness to Alpha Darcy, silencing the pathetic mumblings of Caroline Bingley and leaving behind my sweet Jane in the arms of her new detestable lover within the walls of her own life and pack.

My lungs gasped for air, allowing the raindrops to fall over my vision and washing away the frustratingly handsome Alpha Darcy's image with that of Mr. Collins. I blinked away the possible haze that crawled over my eyesight but still left him before me until my back was pressed against the ground, staring in his wide eyes, with his nails digging into my wrists.

A silver pistol over an engagement ring glittering in his steady, almost trained palm. William Collins' deep blue eyes found mine as his weapon landed horrifyingly at my temple and his breath danced over my face. Almost romantically.

"I pray you'll forgive me Lizzie for such a rather personal question so early into our courtship but are you a werewolf, Miss Bennet?"


End file.
